Pilgrim Ways

King Egfrid, accompanied by a large retinue travelled to Inner Farne to persuade Cuthbert to become Bishop of Lindisfarne. Initially reluctant he was persuaded and, although successful, two years later he relinquished office and returned to his cell on Inner Farne. After celebrating Christmas with the community at Lindisfarne he set off for Farne, responding to a questioner who asked: “Tell us Lord Bishop, when we may hope for your return...?” Cuthbert replied: “When you bring my body back here.” As he had prophesied, after his death, in 687, Cuthbert‟s remains were taken to Lindisfarne. When they were exhumed for their removal to a coffin/reliquary, eleven years later, the body was found to be completely undecayed, and the joints and limbs still flexible. St.Bede described him as more like a sleeping man than a dead man. His garments also seemed to be perfectly new and wondrously bright. Many miracles were also recorded.

North Eastern Monasticism and Whitby Aidan and Cuthbert had a magnetism which attracted the Anglo-Saxons, who came out in significant numbers to these remote places to seek out the wise counsel of the saints. In turn this triggered an extraordinary renaissance of Christianity. At Jarrow, Wearmouth, and Flixborough, monastic foundations would be created from which scribes crafted the wonderful Lindisfarne Gospels. The Celtic mission in the north and Augustine‟s Roman mission in the south were like a pincer movement which swept through England although temperament and style, and differences in organisation and liturgical practice, inevitably led to the creation of tension between these two rich Christian traditions. This came to a head in 664 at the Synod of Whitby (see chapter 3).

On Lindisfarne, Aidan had been succeeded as abbot by Finan and he, in turn, by Colman.

During his tenure the Whitby Synod was convened. Principal protagonist for the Celtic tradition, Colman‟s arguments were marshalled against those of Wilfrid, Abbot of Ripon.

This thirty year old monk, renowned for his erudition and learning, championed the Roman cause. A whole host of liturgical, theoretical and practical questions were ultimately singled down to a central question put by King Oswy to Colman and Wilfrid: “Is it true that special authority was given to Saint Peter? Colman replied: “It‟s true Your Majesty.” Then the king continued: “Do you both agree that these words were indisputably addressed to Peter in the first place, and that our Lord gave him the keys of the kingdom of heaven?” Both answered that they did. At this the king concluded: “I tell you, Peter is guardian of the gates of heaven, and I shall not contradict him. I shall obey his commands and everything to the best of my knowledge and ability. Otherwise, when I come to the gates of heaven, there may be no one to open them because he who holds the key has turned away.”

The controversy was thus settled; although argument about church authority and obedience to Christi teaching continue to our own day and will doubtless persist until the Kingdom comes.

Oswy perceived the issue very clearly. Whatever the arguments about the date on which Easter was celebrated, or how monasteries and dioceses were organised, or in our own context, questions of women‟s ordination or the re-marriage of divorced people in church buildings, was the Christian Church in this island going to be separate from the universal church? Was it going to follow its own whims and fancies or was it prepared to break communion with the universal church in order to follow its own path?